Book Review: The Broken Hearts Book Club by Lynsey James

What’s it about?

Secrets never stay buried for long…

Lucy Harper has always been good at one thing: running from her past. But when her beloved Nana Lily passes away she has no choice except to return to the one place in the world she most wants to avoid…

Luna Bay hasn’t changed much in the eight years she has spent in London. The little Yorkshire village is still just as beautiful, but the new pub landlord is a gorgeous addition to the scenery!

Lucy only intended to stay for a day, yet when she discovers that Nana Lily has not only left her a cottage but also ‘The Broken Hearts Book Club’, Lucy is intrigued. Her Nana never have mentioned the club and Lucy can’t wait to get started, but walking into her first meeting she is more aware than ever that her past is finally catching up with her.

One way or another, Lucy must finally face the secrets she’s kept buried for so long – or spend the rest of her life on the run…

My thoughts

I have to admit I was attracted to this book by its cover as it’s gorgeous and was hoping that it would have a vintage type theme to the book but that’s not the case.

Coupled with the lovely seaside setting my favourite parts of this book were the book club scenes and the books that were mentioned to aid the member’s grieving process. There were some very heartfelt scenes that made me fill up and feel quite emotional.

Lucy’s character feels very relatable; somewhat young and naive but with quite a humerous side to her and whilst I initially found her appealing, I found myself getting bored with hearing the same things all the time (could it have done with better editing, I don’t know).

Although there are hints along the way the big reveal of the mystery incident was over-indulged and dragged out a little too long for me and I found myself losing interest into what it was.

I had a couple of issues with the actual timeline in the book; one that sticks in my mind (forgive me if I don’t quite get the scene right) Lucy goes to the solicitor with her mum after her Nana’s funeral but later it mentions that being yesterday but it doesn’t read as being yesterday; confused me and I had to go back and check. Another one was with the cocktail event but I can’t recall all of those details. Of course, I have an ARC so these little issues may have resolved prior to publication.

I so wanted to love this book as I’d put myself forward to take part in the blog tour so I did feel an expectation would be upon me too but I have to be honest. I hope I don’t sound too harsh as overall, this is a light, easy read and utterly predictable but die hard fans of chick-lit will devour and love it and I wish Lynsey all the best with the book!

Many thanks to the publisher, Carina, for approving me for an ARC via Netgalley.

Lynsey James was born in Fife in 1991 and has been telling people how to spell her name ever since. She’s an incurable bookworm who loves nothing more than getting lost in a good story with memorable characters. She started writing when she was really young and credits her lovely Grandad- and possibly a bump on the head from a Mr Frosty machine- with her love of telling stories. She used to write her own episodes of Friends and act them out in front of her family (in fact she’s sure she put Ross and Rachel together first!)

A careers adviser at school once told Lynsey writing wasn’t a “good option” and for a few years, she believed her. She tried a little bit of everything, including make-up artistry, teaching and doing admin for a chocolate fountain company. The free chocolate was brilliant. When Lynsey left her job a couple of years ago, she started writing full-time while she looked for another one. As soon as she started working on her story, Lynsey fell in love and decided to finally pursue her dream. She haven’t looked back since.

When Lynsey’s not writing, eating cake or drinking tea, she’s daydreaming about the day Dylan O’Brien FINALLY realises they’re meant to be together. It’ll happen one day…

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